I'll Try
by BellatrixLestrangey
Summary: Swan Queen Week Day 3: Shared Dreams Stranded in Neverland, Emma decides to share her goals in life and inquires about Regina's dreams.


"Tallahassee." Regina mutters to herself. "That does sound lovely." Emma never struck her as the type to fancy balmy beaches and palm trees. Forests and woodlands, and a good hike, that is something Regina could see her liking.

"Yeah, that used to be my dream destination. Neal and I, we were gonna go to Tallahassee." Emma replies.

"Still up for it?" Regina asks, though she doesn't really care for the beach scene, she is rather content where she is.

"Actually, I'd like to hear about your dream destination." Emma muses. "We always talk about me and what I wanted, my goals. Why don't we ever talk about you?"

Regina has to think, being perfectly honest with herself, she doesn't really know if she has any dream destinations to share. She doesn't know if she has any dreams at all. After so much time having her path set for her she hadn't really seen herself actually forging goals of her own. "Swan, you'll find them terribly boring." She tries to wave the question off.

"I don't think that things can get much more boring than being stuck in this jungle, counting palm fronds."

It is true, Neverland has been especially dull now that the fighting has subsided. Regina couldn't place when it had happened but somewhere along the way she had found a soft spot for Emma. One that is apparently returned. And Mary hasn't been particularly aggravating these days either. Regina thinks that they are all tired and once they regain some energy they will be at each other's throats again.

Or perhaps not, the more she talks to Emma the harder it is for her to see herself starting another fight. Emma herself put a sharp halt on Neal and Hook's bickering in confessing that said bickering was driving her away from the both of them. So Regina lost that source of entertainment.

"No really, it is boring." Regina insists.

"Well I already know you're boring so, no harm in sharing more boring things."

Regina gave an indignant sniff. "I don't have a dream destination, Swan. Unless Storybrook counts." She paused, contemplating digging deeper. She supposed that it was only fair, Emma had already shared a hefty amount of personal details. "I guess I just want to be home before I go anywhere else. I mean, truly home. I want to go to a place where I'm not alone, not hated." She leaned her head back against the tree and stared skyward—not that she could see the stars through the dense sea of palm fronds.

She looked back down in time to see Emma nod. "That's fair."

"My goals…" Regina trailed off, she didn't know if she had any. Her sole purpose was to cast that curse and now that it was many months broken she didn't quite know what to do with herself. "I guess I just want to get Henry back, I want him to love me like he loves you."

Emma smiled, something Regina thought was perhaps unwarranted for the situation. "I think that after we rescue him from this awful place, he will.

"Perhaps." Growing hot, she tugs her jacket off and neatly folds it. Emma was still staring at her. "What?"

"Come on now, you have to have more than one goal."

"I don't." Regina replied firmly. "I wanted to cast my curse and I did. I wanted my revenge and I got it, at least for a while I did."

"Let me guess, your goal is to take it again?"

Regina shook her head, that was just it, she had, had her fix of vengeance and truth be told she was tired of it. She lacked the energy and desire to extract it again. "Maybe my goal is to find a goal."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Alright, fine, what are your dreams then?"

"My dreams?"

"Yeah, like if you could have anything, if you could live your perfect life, what would that be like?"

Mostly it entailed finding the love she never got. Finding a way to be truly happy as opposed to that pseudo version of it crafted by her own hand. But she wasn't ready to disclose that yet. Doing so would likely lead to a discussion about what had went wrong in her life. That was the last thing she needed, trapped in Neverland. "Well, my perfect life would include lounging in my mansion, _not_ being interrogated by a certain blonde."

"Ha. Ha." Emma rolled her eyes, "now what is your real dream life?"

"What is yours, Swan?"

Emma thought for a moment. "I guess a happy ending like everyone else. It would be nice to get used to calling my parents, well, parents. Henry is in the picture of course, we'd have a house instead of just Mary's small apartment. I'd love to add some flair to my bug…"

Regina didn't want to know what adding flair entailed. But then, at least Emma had desires, that was more than she could say. Emma continued to ramble for a few minutes, mostly mundane things like getting a dog and a hamster, getting a break from the savior business, and of course, Tallahassee. "Your turn, Gina."

"Don't call me that." She grumbled, coaxing from Emma two raised hands.

"Come on Regina. Share a dream or two with me. Maybe I can help you achieve one."

"There is nothing I want less than that." Regina replied. In truth though, Emma had found a soft spot. Until now, no one had ever cared to ask her what she wanted in life. No one cared to listen. So she spoke to the one set of ears that would. "Like you I dream of my happy ending. I—I don't really know what that looks like because I never thought it was even remotely possible. But maybe…" She trailed off trying to piece things together. Everything she was going to say was going to sound so corny and overdone. "Henry would be living with me, we would have game nights. If it's just the two of us that would be fine but I would like to have someone else..."

"A lover?"

Regina nodded. "I think that that's all I ever wanted. I never really had anybody." She paused, swallowing a lump in her throat, she didn't want to cry nor did she want her voice to crack. But it was hard, so hard, because now she was thinking about how things could have been for her. "I just want somebody, I don't think that it really matters who at this point as long as they care."

"That sounds nice." Emma's smile was warm.

She didn't mean to but she started to ramble. "It doesn't even matter where, we could be living here in Neverland and I would be happy as long as they loved me. As long as nothing would take them away from me."

"Here in Neverland…" Emma muses. "What if I told you that I care?"

Regina met her eyes. It was hard for her to fathom but she thinks that Emma means it. She considered for the first time that Emma was asking these questions to see how well their aspirations lined up. If such were the case Emma was lucky, her goals were remotely simple. Surprisingly simple even. "I wouldn't know what to do with that." Regina confessed.

"Well, you better figure it out, Regina. Because I do care about you, a lot actually."

Regina tilted her head. She could tell that Emma was being sincere and it scared her. Somewhere along the lines, there was a shift. It wasn't just a soft spot they'd found for each other. It was something else, something that Regina was afraid to take and run with. She couldn't place exactly when the shift had occurred but it had. She could see that much in Emma's eyes.

With only one sentence her dreams seemed a little clearer. There was a face to that someone who she'd be happy with anywhere so long as they loved her. There was a face and a name and a personality. With only one sentence, her dreams seemed to center around Emma. Perhaps they had for a while now and she simply couldn't bring herself to admit it.

And the more she thought about it, the more sense it seemed to make. Anywhere could mean Tallahassee. Both her own dream life and Emma's involved living with Henry…

It was an impulse really, to set her newfound dream in motion, but she spoke no less, "I'll try." Regina really didn't know what trying entailed but pulling Emma into a small hug seemed like a good start.


End file.
